I am a big fan of Brandon Roy. He is a very unique player who went to college and who came to the league a finished product. He is smart, very versatile, knows how to play the game and makes his teammates better. He is not uber-athletic or a superstar scorer like Kobe or LeBron, but there is this quite efficiency about his game that is almost non-existent in the game today. Plus he is clutch like he showed today at Portland.
NBA is in full flow now and there was a great game between Portland and Houston today. It started off bad, but heated up towards the end. Roy was bottled up for the most part by Ron-Ron, but then he came alive in OT. He made Ron Artest look stupid on one drive to the hoop and then hit the last 2 shots for Portland including the long buzzer-beating 3 from Corvallis, Oregon. Between his 2 shots, Yao hit an amazing jumper that should have won the game for Houston if only T-Mac knew what he was doing when he was defending Roy during that last sequence. Great game and Roy was awesome.
T-Mac did have a great game. I have always liked Aaron Brooks since his Oregon days and he is contributing now for the Rockets. Dude is laser quick. Suns pick Rudy Fernandez had a great game for Portland as well. Good to see the new blood in the league. But the "old" blood ain't doing too bad either. Some huge numbers yesterday for superstars. Our own Amare dropped 49 on Indiana. Tony Parker went nuts with a 55-7-10 night and the King broke out with a 41-9-6 night despite some injury action early in the game. Good stuff going on in the league early.
AI got traded to Detroit for Chauncey Billups. AI had a great presser at Detroit with some funny lines about "practice". I like the trade a lot for Denver. They finally got a PG and someone who might fit with Melo. Speaking of Denver, the NFL thursday games started this week and Jay Cutler lit it up with 447 yards and 3 TDs. Brady Quinn wasn't too shabby either as he threw for 239 yds and 2 TDs. It was good to see the Sun Devil Ryan Torain rush for the Broncos. But the real question is, why is Denver struggling to beat teams like Cleveland? Is this the same team that looked like a Super Bowl contender at the start of the season? That whole AFC West looks shaky this year. Lets see what happens. Tennessee might actually go all the way the way things are right now.
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Audacity of Hope
Historic election night in America today. A true watershed moment in history as America welcomes it's first black president-elect. Nobody thought this day was ever going to come. Now it's here and it's real and this is a proud day indeed for America. It tells anybody and everybody that this is still the land of opportunity and in the words of a delirious Kevin Garnett after his championship -"anything is possible!!". I can't imagine how much this means to a new generation of minorities in this country. They can now aspire to be anything they want to be including the President of America. Congrats to Obama and his brilliant campaign for bringing this change and hope and we expect many more changes.
Speaking of hope, the Suns are still hoping to be an elite team. They are 3-1 and today they crushed the Nets. But then again thats neither here or not there. The Spurs are surprisingly 0-3. They lost to the Mavs tonight. A tough schedule so far, but still it's odd to see the Spurs 0-3. Of course they will start their rodeo trip eventually and thats probably when they'll start winning and go on some sort of a run. They'll be fine, especially when Ginobli comes back. Until then, I'll just enjoy the increased scoring I am getting from Timmy for my fantasy team.
The football weekend was good, though I was distracted by the election fun a little bit. Texas Tech upset Texas and kicked them off their number 1 ranking. The longhorns almost got out of their brutal 4-game stretch unscathed, but they stumbled at the last hurdle. Now Tech is ranked all the way up at 2 leap-frogging Penn state. Penn state is pissed, but they need to focus on their schedule and just do their job because Texas Tech will probably lose given their brutal Big-12 schedule. Alabama is at LSU this weekend and thats no walk in the park. So this thing is long from over and I expect several shake-ups in the BCS standings before it's all said and done. If Penn State wants the right to get blown out in the championship game, they just need to hang in there and win their easy games. They'll get their wish.
Speaking of hope, the Suns are still hoping to be an elite team. They are 3-1 and today they crushed the Nets. But then again thats neither here or not there. The Spurs are surprisingly 0-3. They lost to the Mavs tonight. A tough schedule so far, but still it's odd to see the Spurs 0-3. Of course they will start their rodeo trip eventually and thats probably when they'll start winning and go on some sort of a run. They'll be fine, especially when Ginobli comes back. Until then, I'll just enjoy the increased scoring I am getting from Timmy for my fantasy team.
The football weekend was good, though I was distracted by the election fun a little bit. Texas Tech upset Texas and kicked them off their number 1 ranking. The longhorns almost got out of their brutal 4-game stretch unscathed, but they stumbled at the last hurdle. Now Tech is ranked all the way up at 2 leap-frogging Penn state. Penn state is pissed, but they need to focus on their schedule and just do their job because Texas Tech will probably lose given their brutal Big-12 schedule. Alabama is at LSU this weekend and thats no walk in the park. So this thing is long from over and I expect several shake-ups in the BCS standings before it's all said and done. If Penn State wants the right to get blown out in the championship game, they just need to hang in there and win their easy games. They'll get their wish.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Phillies win
The weather played havoc with the World series and it finally ended yesterday with the Phillies winning. At least thats what I am told! I didn't watch the later part of this series and neither did America. Between the rain delays and Obama's infomercial, the World Series had nowhere to go and ended up with the worst rating ever. Bad times for Fox with these ratings and with their favorite republicans sinking in the polls. I guess Philadelphia doesn't care. They are getting ready to throw a parade on Friday. Pedro Feliz drove in the winning run and he will be a hero in Philly forever.
Bye bye baseball for now. NBA is in full flow. The Suns are 1-1. They beat the Spurs, but where clearly inferior to Chris Paul and the Hornets. This is what I mean by the Window closing. They may be finally good enough to beat the Spurs, but both of them are not as good as the Lakers or even the Hornets. The defense is still as bad as it has ever been. Suns can't stop most of the guys and that gives confidence to everybody to the point these guys start shooting 3's and never miss. The threes were raining and the home opener went under the loss column. Dallas lost their home opener as well with Houston and Ron-Ron looking good. This should be an interesting season in the West. And East doesn't look too shabby either.
Bye bye baseball for now. NBA is in full flow. The Suns are 1-1. They beat the Spurs, but where clearly inferior to Chris Paul and the Hornets. This is what I mean by the Window closing. They may be finally good enough to beat the Spurs, but both of them are not as good as the Lakers or even the Hornets. The defense is still as bad as it has ever been. Suns can't stop most of the guys and that gives confidence to everybody to the point these guys start shooting 3's and never miss. The threes were raining and the home opener went under the loss column. Dallas lost their home opener as well with Houston and Ron-Ron looking good. This should be an interesting season in the West. And East doesn't look too shabby either.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Welcome Back
NBA came back today and not a day too soon. These are good times as the World Series, NFL and the NBA are all on simultaneously. Boston hosted King James and opened the festivities. It was odd to see Paul Pierce cry during the ring ceremony. It's not like he just won the championship today. He has been a champion for months and I can't imagine he is still so emotional about it. But he did have a great game and the Celtics kicked off the season in style. Loss 1 for King James as the Cavs are hoping his growth, team chemistry and Mo Williams will put them over the top this year. Unlikely, but anything can happen with the king.
Kobe and the Lakers kicked off the West coast activities. The big news was the debut of Greg Oden that lasted about 12 minutes. He hurt his foot and had to leave the game. Hope it's not too serious. Lakers and Kobe looked good and won the game. Looks like it's their conference to lose. The Suns have a few interesting games this week and are on TV a lot. But honestly their window is pretty much closed. So is Dallas's and may be even San Antonio. The changing of the guard happened last year when the Lakers and the Hornets came out of nowhere to take the torch from the Suns, Mavs and the Spurs. The Spurs are probably the best placed among the 3 oldies and the Suns open the season against them. Lets see if the games are still fun with the Suns under the new coach.
The weather is playing havoc with the World Series. I lost track of when the previous game ended and when the next one is scheduled. It's a mess, but Philly is sitting pretty anyways. They should wrap it up soon, in the next 3 months. In the NFL, the new Niners coach Mike Singletary is the story. He kicked Vernon Davis off his bench during the game and gave an emotional, impassioned speech after the game. I feel like he is burning too hot right now. At this rate, he will be tuned out by the players by week 14 especially if they don't win more than they lose. He needs to handle himself very carefully. It's easy to coach a winner. It's that much harder to coach a losing team with little talent. He better play this thing tight.
Kobe and the Lakers kicked off the West coast activities. The big news was the debut of Greg Oden that lasted about 12 minutes. He hurt his foot and had to leave the game. Hope it's not too serious. Lakers and Kobe looked good and won the game. Looks like it's their conference to lose. The Suns have a few interesting games this week and are on TV a lot. But honestly their window is pretty much closed. So is Dallas's and may be even San Antonio. The changing of the guard happened last year when the Lakers and the Hornets came out of nowhere to take the torch from the Suns, Mavs and the Spurs. The Spurs are probably the best placed among the 3 oldies and the Suns open the season against them. Lets see if the games are still fun with the Suns under the new coach.
The weather is playing havoc with the World Series. I lost track of when the previous game ended and when the next one is scheduled. It's a mess, but Philly is sitting pretty anyways. They should wrap it up soon, in the next 3 months. In the NFL, the new Niners coach Mike Singletary is the story. He kicked Vernon Davis off his bench during the game and gave an emotional, impassioned speech after the game. I feel like he is burning too hot right now. At this rate, he will be tuned out by the players by week 14 especially if they don't win more than they lose. He needs to handle himself very carefully. It's easy to coach a winner. It's that much harder to coach a losing team with little talent. He better play this thing tight.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
World Series
The World Series has started and not sure how many people care or are watching. Both the Rays and the Phillies are deserving participants and are great teams and have both won a game. As expected, Cole Hamels won his start, but the rest of the rotation is really "advantage Rays". The gritty, gutty Rays were not just going to go away after they lost game 1. They came back in style and won game 2 rather easily. David Price and the the Rays bullpen closed the door on the Phillies. Now the scene shifts to Philly.
In the NFL, just way too much drama surrounding the Dallas Cowboys. It's amazing how ESPN and the 24 hour sports outlets are just creating news out of anything and everything. They want to make this Cowboys story bigger and messier than it really is. The real story of the league should be the mediocrity of the Colts and the Chargers and the resurgence of the Titans and the Bills. Luckily for the Chargers, the Broncos are not pulling away either. The Colts on the other hand are already 3 games behind the Titans. Go figure!
In the NFL, just way too much drama surrounding the Dallas Cowboys. It's amazing how ESPN and the 24 hour sports outlets are just creating news out of anything and everything. They want to make this Cowboys story bigger and messier than it really is. The real story of the league should be the mediocrity of the Colts and the Chargers and the resurgence of the Titans and the Bills. Luckily for the Chargers, the Broncos are not pulling away either. The Colts on the other hand are already 3 games behind the Titans. Go figure!
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Rays shine through
Game 7 today was a thrilling baseball game that went just like you would expect any game 7 to. It was well-pitched, tense and very well-played and managed. More importantly, it saved us all from watching the stupid Sunday night football game between Seattle and Tampa Bay. Big sports day all around in Tampa, but which moron picked this game for Sunday night? I mean, even if Seattle was as good as originally thought and even assuming we didn't have to endure Seneca Wallace at QB, this was not a marquee match-up in my book.
Anyways, the Rays trailed 0-1 for most of the early innings, but got to Lester in the middle innings and scored just enough runs to win this game 3-1. Matt Garza out-pitched Jon Lester, but barely. The Rays bullpen did what it had to and David Price got them a 4-out save. It was all good in Tampa and it was strange to see all 30 year old front-office dudes on the stage. A modern-day, money-ball era team with a manager who is in to new-age stuff and flawed math. Nice to see them win. What the hell does 9 = 8 mean anyways? Now 9 = 2. Also great to see a new face represent the AL-East in the World Series. I thought this day may never come. Toronto has always been my hope for parity in that division, but Tampa surprised everybody this season. Now onto the World series.
Anyways, the Rays trailed 0-1 for most of the early innings, but got to Lester in the middle innings and scored just enough runs to win this game 3-1. Matt Garza out-pitched Jon Lester, but barely. The Rays bullpen did what it had to and David Price got them a 4-out save. It was all good in Tampa and it was strange to see all 30 year old front-office dudes on the stage. A modern-day, money-ball era team with a manager who is in to new-age stuff and flawed math. Nice to see them win. What the hell does 9 = 8 mean anyways? Now 9 = 2. Also great to see a new face represent the AL-East in the World Series. I thought this day may never come. Toronto has always been my hope for parity in that division, but Tampa surprised everybody this season. Now onto the World series.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Roach-Sox
Gone are the days when the Red Sox were anything but clutch. We were so used to seeing the Red Sox choke away all their talents and opportunities in the most crucial late season or post-season games year after year. The weight of 86 years of the curse always came crashing on the Sox and their fans at the worst times and they always lost when it mattered the most. The fans then wallowed in their sorrow and wore that curse proudly like it was some sort of a badge of honor. They blamed everybody else for their team's ineptitude and they got to a point where they didn't expect or even want to win. The pressure of the whole situation was too much for the players and the coaches much like it still is for the Cubs with their curse.
Then 2004 happened. As always, they fell to 0-3 against the hated Yankees, but a bunch of players who called themselves "idiots" somehow found a way to stay lose, play well and win the series 4-3. Then they went on to eliminate the curse and win the World Series for the first time in forever. Now you can even kill a roach, but you just cannot beat these guys in an elimination game. They are 9-0 in elimination games lately and thats just amazing. They won 4-2 today behind Josh Beckett to force a game 7. But I still can't believe they won game 5 at Boston after trailing 0-7 in the 7-Th inning. They better lose game 7 tomorrow. Otherwise I am not sure if I can handle the realities of this new World thats been going on for 5 years now. Plus I wanna see MLB and Fox deal with a Philly-TB World Series.
In the campus today, no major upsets except for the 9-Th ranked BYU losing to TCU. Texas beat Missouri easily and USC beat WSU 69-0. Texas now moves on to the next challenge and USC probably has no more challenges left. The best play of the entire day was a ref tackling the South Carolina QB in the LSU game. The QB was running straight into the ref and may be he wanted to protect himself or something, but he clearly lowered his shoulder and leveled the poor QB. May be the ref had some money in the game and was trying to pull a Donaghy on us. Who knows, but it was an awesome tackle.
Speaking of awesome, the Ozzie Guillen skit on Mad TV on Fox is a must-see. Pretty funny.
Then 2004 happened. As always, they fell to 0-3 against the hated Yankees, but a bunch of players who called themselves "idiots" somehow found a way to stay lose, play well and win the series 4-3. Then they went on to eliminate the curse and win the World Series for the first time in forever. Now you can even kill a roach, but you just cannot beat these guys in an elimination game. They are 9-0 in elimination games lately and thats just amazing. They won 4-2 today behind Josh Beckett to force a game 7. But I still can't believe they won game 5 at Boston after trailing 0-7 in the 7-Th inning. They better lose game 7 tomorrow. Otherwise I am not sure if I can handle the realities of this new World thats been going on for 5 years now. Plus I wanna see MLB and Fox deal with a Philly-TB World Series.
In the campus today, no major upsets except for the 9-Th ranked BYU losing to TCU. Texas beat Missouri easily and USC beat WSU 69-0. Texas now moves on to the next challenge and USC probably has no more challenges left. The best play of the entire day was a ref tackling the South Carolina QB in the LSU game. The QB was running straight into the ref and may be he wanted to protect himself or something, but he clearly lowered his shoulder and leveled the poor QB. May be the ref had some money in the game and was trying to pull a Donaghy on us. Who knows, but it was an awesome tackle.
Speaking of awesome, the Ozzie Guillen skit on Mad TV on Fox is a must-see. Pretty funny.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Dallas in trouble
The Cowboys lost a fascinating game yesterday to the Arizona Cardinals. I like it every-time the Cards win and every-time the Boys lose, but this one was especially sweet. Both Warner and Larry Fitzgerald were awesome and the Cards lost the toss in OT, but still won the game. In fact they won the game on a blocked punt. It was not even a blocked punt. They got the hands on the ball even before the ball hit the punters feet. It turns out the Cards also broke Tony Romo's pinky. Now Dallas is in a serious grip.
I don't know why Dallas seems to think they have to win every game, but seems like thats what they expect this season. Much like their idiot receiver TO who thinks every pass in every game should go his way. Now both TO and his fans have to re-calibrate their expectations with Romo out for 4 weeks or so. Romo is also getting some criticism for potentially losing too much time for a pinky injury. Lets see when he actually comes back. Brad Johnson will take over and I like him, but I am not sure how much he has left in the tank. I feel like I am also a star like Romo since I broke my thumb playing basketball and I have a grotesque cast on my hand much like Romo's. Now all I need is a Jessica Simpson to take care of me. And a few million dollars of course.
Dallas still has 4 wins and they should be fine. They are part of one of 2 divisions with 3 teams with 4 wins each. The other division surprisingly is the NFC south with Atlanta, Tampa Bay and Carolina. Matty Ice is a stud. I can't believe this guy is a rookie. I don't remember seeing too many rookie QB that are this poised and under control. He obviously has the physical talents, but it's amazing to see how good his "mental game" is in just his 6-Th game -check that, actually since game 1. Matt Cassel on the other hand sucks and seems to be going the other direction with every game.
Cassel and bunch of other QBs are DESTROYING my fantasy season. I am in multiple leagues and between Matt Cassel, Matt Hasselbeck, Jack Delhomme and Derek Anderson, I am dead. I have never been this off with all of my QB picks. Derek Anderson finally had a good game tonight as the Browns beat the Champs in MNF. Eli had a bad interception at a crucial time that finished the game off for the G-men. His brother Peyton finally seems to have got back in the groove as he and Marvelous Marvin shredded the vaunted Baltimore D. It looked like 2002 all over again. Manning-to-Marvin was cooking and the DOW was in the 8000's!
In the baseball playoffs, Tampa Bay evened it up against the reliable Jon Lester. Dodgers on the other hand let a great opportunity slip though their hands. Now they are down 3-1 and in trouble. I wish both series were tied 2-2.
I don't know why Dallas seems to think they have to win every game, but seems like thats what they expect this season. Much like their idiot receiver TO who thinks every pass in every game should go his way. Now both TO and his fans have to re-calibrate their expectations with Romo out for 4 weeks or so. Romo is also getting some criticism for potentially losing too much time for a pinky injury. Lets see when he actually comes back. Brad Johnson will take over and I like him, but I am not sure how much he has left in the tank. I feel like I am also a star like Romo since I broke my thumb playing basketball and I have a grotesque cast on my hand much like Romo's. Now all I need is a Jessica Simpson to take care of me. And a few million dollars of course.
Dallas still has 4 wins and they should be fine. They are part of one of 2 divisions with 3 teams with 4 wins each. The other division surprisingly is the NFC south with Atlanta, Tampa Bay and Carolina. Matty Ice is a stud. I can't believe this guy is a rookie. I don't remember seeing too many rookie QB that are this poised and under control. He obviously has the physical talents, but it's amazing to see how good his "mental game" is in just his 6-Th game -check that, actually since game 1. Matt Cassel on the other hand sucks and seems to be going the other direction with every game.
Cassel and bunch of other QBs are DESTROYING my fantasy season. I am in multiple leagues and between Matt Cassel, Matt Hasselbeck, Jack Delhomme and Derek Anderson, I am dead. I have never been this off with all of my QB picks. Derek Anderson finally had a good game tonight as the Browns beat the Champs in MNF. Eli had a bad interception at a crucial time that finished the game off for the G-men. His brother Peyton finally seems to have got back in the groove as he and Marvelous Marvin shredded the vaunted Baltimore D. It looked like 2002 all over again. Manning-to-Marvin was cooking and the DOW was in the 8000's!
In the baseball playoffs, Tampa Bay evened it up against the reliable Jon Lester. Dodgers on the other hand let a great opportunity slip though their hands. Now they are down 3-1 and in trouble. I wish both series were tied 2-2.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Typical A.L.
Tampa Bay evened up the ALCS today in 11 innings. Every post-season you have several games like these which go on forever with a bagful of runs scored by either side. In other words, a typical AL game, only slower because of the playoff pace and more frequent pitching changes in the post-season. This game went on for 5 hrs and 27 mins and surprisingly, a sizable number of fans hung around. Both Josh Beckett ad Scott Kazmir were getting hit all over the park and were still allowed to hang around a little too long. The Bsoton bullpen was a lot more effective than the Rays (yes, I have to stop calling them DevilRays now that they are in the playoffs), but still the Rays pulled this one at the end 9-8. Great drama and this series just got a lot more interesting. Now it's up to the Dodgers to make a contest out of the NLCS.
In College today, Oklahama and Texas played a memorable game. Lot of scoring in this game and the Horns actually had to come back from behind in the 4-Th quarter to win this one 45-35. Great win for the Horns and it qualifies as an upset because it's 5 over 1. This set the tone for another day of upsets. Number 1, 3, 4 and 20 lost. The biggest shocker was Florida embarrassing LSU 51-21. Missouri lost to Oki State and Auburn to Arkansas as well. So Texas should be on top come Monday. The team thats moving up silently is Penn State. This could be a huge comeback year for Joe-Pa as they beat Wisconsin 48-7 today. Lets see where they end up in the polls.
In College today, Oklahama and Texas played a memorable game. Lot of scoring in this game and the Horns actually had to come back from behind in the 4-Th quarter to win this one 45-35. Great win for the Horns and it qualifies as an upset because it's 5 over 1. This set the tone for another day of upsets. Number 1, 3, 4 and 20 lost. The biggest shocker was Florida embarrassing LSU 51-21. Missouri lost to Oki State and Auburn to Arkansas as well. So Texas should be on top come Monday. The team thats moving up silently is Penn State. This could be a huge comeback year for Joe-Pa as they beat Wisconsin 48-7 today. Lets see where they end up in the polls.
Thursday, October 09, 2008
Phillies come through
The Phillies won game 1 of the NLCS against the Dodgers 3-2. It was another one of those typical, well-pitched, NL playoff game. Cole Hamels was awesome. He is fast becoming a superstar ace. America should keep an eye on this kid. Derek Lowe was not too bad either. He was shutting fools down for 5 innings, but then the train came off the tracks a little bit. Chase Utley and Pat Burrell went back-to-back jack to put the Phillies up for good. Man-Ram had another solid game and went 2-4. He almost hit one out off Hamels. It was weird to see Greg Maddux pitch in relief. It might be time for the professor to retire.
This game followed a unique day in the Sports calendar. There was absolutely nothing going on yesterday (Wednesday) because of the day off during the MLB playoffs. NBA pre-season was the only major sport going on and of course pre-season doesn't count. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some college football game somewhere because it does look like they have made College football a 7-day a week sport, but nothing that mattered happened yesterday. I think they had a college game Tues and Thurs, but nothing Wed. This kind of a "dead day" is usually confined only to the day after the MLB all-star game in the summer, but it was noticeable yesterday.
Sports Radio of course needs something to yap about on such days and Adam Pacman Jones readily obliged. He fought with his own "body-guard" in the bathroom and broke some glass. I find it odd that Jerry Jones had employed people to accompany Pacman and keep him straight. Unfortunately Pacman apparently didn't like one of the guys and might have found trouble through the very same guys hired to keep him out of trouble. Excellent ! May be Jerry Jones should accompany and shadow Pacman himself. Might be worth his time. Now it's up to Roger Goodell to make another call on Pacman. Seems like Jerry Jones has bought people off and kept the cops off of Pacman, but I am not sure how he's gonna massage the Commish. For the Cowboys, at least Pacman is keeping TO off the news. I am sure TO will bounce back strong with his own act of stupidity.
This game followed a unique day in the Sports calendar. There was absolutely nothing going on yesterday (Wednesday) because of the day off during the MLB playoffs. NBA pre-season was the only major sport going on and of course pre-season doesn't count. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some college football game somewhere because it does look like they have made College football a 7-day a week sport, but nothing that mattered happened yesterday. I think they had a college game Tues and Thurs, but nothing Wed. This kind of a "dead day" is usually confined only to the day after the MLB all-star game in the summer, but it was noticeable yesterday.
Sports Radio of course needs something to yap about on such days and Adam Pacman Jones readily obliged. He fought with his own "body-guard" in the bathroom and broke some glass. I find it odd that Jerry Jones had employed people to accompany Pacman and keep him straight. Unfortunately Pacman apparently didn't like one of the guys and might have found trouble through the very same guys hired to keep him out of trouble. Excellent ! May be Jerry Jones should accompany and shadow Pacman himself. Might be worth his time. Now it's up to Roger Goodell to make another call on Pacman. Seems like Jerry Jones has bought people off and kept the cops off of Pacman, but I am not sure how he's gonna massage the Commish. For the Cowboys, at least Pacman is keeping TO off the news. I am sure TO will bounce back strong with his own act of stupidity.
Sunday, October 05, 2008
Live Another Day
The Angels and the White Sox won today to live another day. The more impressive win was the Angels since they did it on the road in extra innings. It took them 12 innings, but at least they get to play another 9 tomorrow. They almost gave this away as they let 3 runs get in on a pop-fly single. A fly ball that fell in-between 3 guys and none of them went for the ball. Thats freaking 3 runs in a tight playoff game. Thats like gifting 3 TDs in a football game or 30 points in basketball. Poor Joe Saunders was slapped with 3 earned runs because of his idiot teammates. The Angels have to thank Mike Napoli for winning this game. He hit 2 majestic home-runs off Josh Beckett to save the day.
It should be an interesting game tomorrow as John Lackey and Jon Lester are on the mound again after their impressive game 1. In the NL, the Phillies dispatched the Brewers today. I am kinda sad to see the young, exciting Brewers with an energetic fan-base go away, but the Phillies were clearly the better team. I can't believe how good they pitched in this series (or was it the Brewers hitting?) and their hitting is top-notch with J-Rolls, Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Pat Burrell, who had 2 homers today. It should be a fun series against the Dodgers who are also on fire right now.
In the NFL, I was disappointed with Chad Johnson not scoring in Dallas. I wanted the whole "kissing the star" drama to go down today, but we were all not that lucky. TJ Housh had 2 TDs and for Dallas, TO scored and had a strange news conference after the game. In Houston, Sage Rosenfels had a horrible day. He was getting the job done and Houston had pretty much won the game when he fumbled the ball twice and let the Colts score 21 points in less than 3 minutes. He went for a dive instead of a slide for one fumble and held on the ball way too long for another. Colts still look shaky as they are repeatedly snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.
The other elite team that looks shaky is the San Diego Chargers. LT looks completely shot and the Chargers are inconsistent at best. They lost today at Miami. Can somebody figure out how to stop the direct snap to Ronnie Brown? Thats seems like the most potent play in the entire game right now and I have no idea why. Arizona Cardinals are leading the NFC West after beating the Bills today. Adrian Wilson crushed Trent Edwards and gave him a scary concussion early in this game. It reminded me of another Cardinal secondary, Aeneas Williams, blitzing and ending Steve Young's career few years back. That injury to Trent killed one of my fantasy teams today. Matt Hasselbeck and the dogs called the Seattle Seahawks are destroying my other team. The Seahawks absolutely suck. They were crushed by the Giants 44-6 today. The Giants and the Titans are the only un-defeated teams in the league. Who would have Thunk.
Here's a news flash. Big Ben is a stud. He steered the Pittsburgh Steelers to another big win today. He is getting killed back there, but he always seems to pop back up and calmly score touchdowns when they need them the most. He is fast becoming the most reliable QB in the 4-Th quarter when the game is on the line. The Steelers are one of the top favorites in the AFC since the injury to Tom Brady. The Pats did win today though at San Francisco though they didn't look dominating or anything. Too many mistakes by JTO for SF and Casssel seems to be learning how to find Randy Moss consistently for the Pats. Eagles lost again, this time to the Redskins who just seem to win games for some reason. I don't know what's the deal with the Eagles. Their offense is just too good for them to be just 2-3 at this point. Hope they figure it out.
It should be an interesting game tomorrow as John Lackey and Jon Lester are on the mound again after their impressive game 1. In the NL, the Phillies dispatched the Brewers today. I am kinda sad to see the young, exciting Brewers with an energetic fan-base go away, but the Phillies were clearly the better team. I can't believe how good they pitched in this series (or was it the Brewers hitting?) and their hitting is top-notch with J-Rolls, Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Pat Burrell, who had 2 homers today. It should be a fun series against the Dodgers who are also on fire right now.
In the NFL, I was disappointed with Chad Johnson not scoring in Dallas. I wanted the whole "kissing the star" drama to go down today, but we were all not that lucky. TJ Housh had 2 TDs and for Dallas, TO scored and had a strange news conference after the game. In Houston, Sage Rosenfels had a horrible day. He was getting the job done and Houston had pretty much won the game when he fumbled the ball twice and let the Colts score 21 points in less than 3 minutes. He went for a dive instead of a slide for one fumble and held on the ball way too long for another. Colts still look shaky as they are repeatedly snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.
The other elite team that looks shaky is the San Diego Chargers. LT looks completely shot and the Chargers are inconsistent at best. They lost today at Miami. Can somebody figure out how to stop the direct snap to Ronnie Brown? Thats seems like the most potent play in the entire game right now and I have no idea why. Arizona Cardinals are leading the NFC West after beating the Bills today. Adrian Wilson crushed Trent Edwards and gave him a scary concussion early in this game. It reminded me of another Cardinal secondary, Aeneas Williams, blitzing and ending Steve Young's career few years back. That injury to Trent killed one of my fantasy teams today. Matt Hasselbeck and the dogs called the Seattle Seahawks are destroying my other team. The Seahawks absolutely suck. They were crushed by the Giants 44-6 today. The Giants and the Titans are the only un-defeated teams in the league. Who would have Thunk.
Here's a news flash. Big Ben is a stud. He steered the Pittsburgh Steelers to another big win today. He is getting killed back there, but he always seems to pop back up and calmly score touchdowns when they need them the most. He is fast becoming the most reliable QB in the 4-Th quarter when the game is on the line. The Steelers are one of the top favorites in the AFC since the injury to Tom Brady. The Pats did win today though at San Francisco though they didn't look dominating or anything. Too many mistakes by JTO for SF and Casssel seems to be learning how to find Randy Moss consistently for the Pats. Eagles lost again, this time to the Redskins who just seem to win games for some reason. I don't know what's the deal with the Eagles. Their offense is just too good for them to be just 2-3 at this point. Hope they figure it out.
Saturday, October 04, 2008
Busy Saturday
October is a busy month in Sports. Football starts in September and we all focus all our energies on it for a month and forget about baseball. But then when October starts, football is already in full flow, but you got to keep an eye on the baseball playoffs as well because playoffs are always fun. Today was the first weekend of the baseball playoffs and I felt like there were way too many things to watch on TV. Fortunately or unfortunately, some of the football games ended up being blowouts and I watched a lot of playoff baseball.
I was very curious to see Manny in the playoffs at home. He got a hit, but it was not a home-run. But he scored a run with a spirited sprint home from first base. Dodgers swept the series anyways and put the dying Cubs to rest. Second straight sweep for the lovable losers and at least last year, they lost the first two games at Arizona. This year, they won 97 games and had home field throughout the NL playoffs. Still they couldn't even win a game. As for the Dodgers, they look real good. It's amazing how they are doing this behind Manny and a bunch of guys without much help from the "name" guys like Jeff Kent, Nomar Garciaparra, Brad Penny, Jason Schmidt and Anduw Jones. Guys who take a lot of the "green" from the Dodger blue and almost got GM Ned Coletti fired at one point.
Now the Dodgers wait for the winner of the other series thats now a contest. The Brew-crew won their game at home and tomorrow, they can actually tie it up. They didn't hit all that well in game 3 either, but they did enough to support Dave Bush who bottled up the Phillies. Tomorrow should be an interesting day with both the AL series resuming as well. BoSox have a chance to do exactly what the Dodgers did today and sweep the team with the best record in their league. How awesome would it be if Manny and the Dodgers play the RedSox in the World Series. I want that to happen badly, though I am always pulling for the Sox to lose. I will make an exception this year if somebody assures me they'll get to play the Dodgers in the World Series.
Another busy day ahead tomorrow as NFL comes to a living room near you along with the 3 playoff games. Many good NFL games as always, but the one I am looking forward to is Cincinnati @ Dallas. Not so much for the football, but because Ocho Cinco has said he would kiss the star if he scores a TD. I sure hope he scores, because I would love to see that even more than Manny at Fenway. The only thing more ironic than Ocho doing this in Dallas after what TO did there many years ago is the fact that the Dallas fans are now cheering for the same TO and he is one of the biggest stars in town. So now what? Why are the Dallas fans even upset? Speaking of TO, that boy is stupid. He got the ball 20 times last week and still complained about not getting the ball enough. Jerry Jones better fix this thing soon like he fixed his face a few years ago.
College today was kinda quiet. ASU lost as usual and there were no shocking upsets. The best game was the Miami-FSU game, but too bad nobody cares about these 2 programs anymore. The surprise of the day was Vandy beating Auburn and leading the SEC East ahead of Florida and Georgia. Lets see how long they last up there. Alabama almost lost to Kentucky, but survived. The bad news of the week was the Suckeyes beating the Wisconsin Badgers 20-17. That was a minor upset much like South Florida losing to Pittsburgh and Fresno State losing to Hawaii. Number 4 Missouri dismantled Nebraska 52-17 and coach Bo Pelini apologized to the fans. I guess Bill Callahan was not the only problem at Nebraska. In other Big 12 action, both Oklahoma and Texas cruised to big wins today. The red river shootout next Saturday between these 2 teams will be the news all of next week.
Of course the bigger news will be the economy if another 26 financial institutions collapse.
I was very curious to see Manny in the playoffs at home. He got a hit, but it was not a home-run. But he scored a run with a spirited sprint home from first base. Dodgers swept the series anyways and put the dying Cubs to rest. Second straight sweep for the lovable losers and at least last year, they lost the first two games at Arizona. This year, they won 97 games and had home field throughout the NL playoffs. Still they couldn't even win a game. As for the Dodgers, they look real good. It's amazing how they are doing this behind Manny and a bunch of guys without much help from the "name" guys like Jeff Kent, Nomar Garciaparra, Brad Penny, Jason Schmidt and Anduw Jones. Guys who take a lot of the "green" from the Dodger blue and almost got GM Ned Coletti fired at one point.
Now the Dodgers wait for the winner of the other series thats now a contest. The Brew-crew won their game at home and tomorrow, they can actually tie it up. They didn't hit all that well in game 3 either, but they did enough to support Dave Bush who bottled up the Phillies. Tomorrow should be an interesting day with both the AL series resuming as well. BoSox have a chance to do exactly what the Dodgers did today and sweep the team with the best record in their league. How awesome would it be if Manny and the Dodgers play the RedSox in the World Series. I want that to happen badly, though I am always pulling for the Sox to lose. I will make an exception this year if somebody assures me they'll get to play the Dodgers in the World Series.
Another busy day ahead tomorrow as NFL comes to a living room near you along with the 3 playoff games. Many good NFL games as always, but the one I am looking forward to is Cincinnati @ Dallas. Not so much for the football, but because Ocho Cinco has said he would kiss the star if he scores a TD. I sure hope he scores, because I would love to see that even more than Manny at Fenway. The only thing more ironic than Ocho doing this in Dallas after what TO did there many years ago is the fact that the Dallas fans are now cheering for the same TO and he is one of the biggest stars in town. So now what? Why are the Dallas fans even upset? Speaking of TO, that boy is stupid. He got the ball 20 times last week and still complained about not getting the ball enough. Jerry Jones better fix this thing soon like he fixed his face a few years ago.
College today was kinda quiet. ASU lost as usual and there were no shocking upsets. The best game was the Miami-FSU game, but too bad nobody cares about these 2 programs anymore. The surprise of the day was Vandy beating Auburn and leading the SEC East ahead of Florida and Georgia. Lets see how long they last up there. Alabama almost lost to Kentucky, but survived. The bad news of the week was the Suckeyes beating the Wisconsin Badgers 20-17. That was a minor upset much like South Florida losing to Pittsburgh and Fresno State losing to Hawaii. Number 4 Missouri dismantled Nebraska 52-17 and coach Bo Pelini apologized to the fans. I guess Bill Callahan was not the only problem at Nebraska. In other Big 12 action, both Oklahoma and Texas cruised to big wins today. The red river shootout next Saturday between these 2 teams will be the news all of next week.
Of course the bigger news will be the economy if another 26 financial institutions collapse.
Thursday, October 02, 2008
Sabathia loses
MLB playoffs is in full swing and in 2 days we have seen a little bit of everything and a lot of bad defense by the Cubs! The Cubs kicked the ball all over the yard and did not give the Z-man any help. Zambrano is a shaky "concept" at best and he did not have a great day, but then with the kind of work the Cubs did on the field, he had no chance. The Cubs have not won a single game since the Bartman game. Poor guy, he is still shouldering the blame for all of the Cubs ineptitude. Dodgers are sitting pretty at 2-0 and going back home. Man-Ram is crushing a home run a day and life is good in Torre-land.
Philly is also up 2-0, but they have to now go on the road to Milwaukee. The Brewers are really struggling and their savior CC finally came down to earth. It was bad timing for the Brewers as they need him to win a game or 2 in this series to advance. Sabathia didn't get past the 4-Th inning and wife-beater Brett Myers won the game for Philly after Cole Hamels did the same yesterday, only Hamels did it with a even more impressive showing. Brewers need a shot of energy from the home crowd to turn this around, but I hope the team doesn't show up expecting the crowd to do all the work. Brewers have a lot of work ahead of them and they need a spirited performance to stay in this thing.
Both AL series are at 1-0 with Boston winning behind a superb performance by Jon Lester. This is what I love about the playoffs. - you get to see the best pitching out there every day. Jon continued his great regular season with an even better game 1. Game 2 tomorrow should be interesting. In Tampa, Evan Longoria showed us once again he is an absolute stud. The 3-Rd baseman went 3-3 and hit 2 HRs to stop the 2-game "almost-playoff" winning streak of the WhiteSox.
Philly is also up 2-0, but they have to now go on the road to Milwaukee. The Brewers are really struggling and their savior CC finally came down to earth. It was bad timing for the Brewers as they need him to win a game or 2 in this series to advance. Sabathia didn't get past the 4-Th inning and wife-beater Brett Myers won the game for Philly after Cole Hamels did the same yesterday, only Hamels did it with a even more impressive showing. Brewers need a shot of energy from the home crowd to turn this around, but I hope the team doesn't show up expecting the crowd to do all the work. Brewers have a lot of work ahead of them and they need a spirited performance to stay in this thing.
Both AL series are at 1-0 with Boston winning behind a superb performance by Jon Lester. This is what I love about the playoffs. - you get to see the best pitching out there every day. Jon continued his great regular season with an even better game 1. Game 2 tomorrow should be interesting. In Tampa, Evan Longoria showed us once again he is an absolute stud. The 3-Rd baseman went 3-3 and hit 2 HRs to stop the 2-game "almost-playoff" winning streak of the WhiteSox.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Awesome Climax
The MLB season ended in style today as the WhiteSox and the Twins played a gem of a game that ended with the Sox making the playoffs with a 1-0 win. Typical playoff baseball with playoff tension and it set us all in the mood for the real playoffs starting tomorrow. Jim Thome hit a home run for the only run in the game, though he did look and sound like a 50 year old coach during the post-game interview. Two dudes called Blackburn and Danks pitched a hell of a game. Too bad, one guy had to lose. The Twins were in the playoffs for 2 days, but then they were "unplayoffed" today. Great season anyways for them given all the stars they lost.
Now on to the playoffs. We get to hear the goofy psycho Ozzie Guillen for a few more days. Brewers and Philly kick it off tomorrow. CC can't pitch because he pitched Sunday, but it should still be a good game. Dodgers and Cubs will also be at it tomorrow and the night-cap will feature the RedSox and Angels. Jon Lester - V - John Lackey should be a good one. The Dodgers look like the RedSox-West as Derek Lowe is starting and of course Manny will be the center-piece. Derek Lowe can actually win this game. Well if he is not busy cheating on his wife with some news reporter!
The biggest and weirdest news of the day involved Al Davis and the Oakland Raiders. Al came out today and finally fired Lane Kiffin, He refused to pay the remainder of his salary and made it look like he was firing a scum-bag liar. These 2 are definitely not parting as friends and I have no idea who is lying. Al is saying he spoke with Lane all the time, but Lane keeps claiming he never spoke to Al. He also read some letter that he sent to Lane. High drama in the Bay Area, but who cares since the Raiders have become the laughing stock of the NFL for a few years now. This episode seems like Mike Shanahan all over again - Al firing a young, offensive minded, first time head coach and refusing to pay him. Lane Kiffin sure hopes he ends up just like Shanahan with the rest of his career. But I really doubt if Lane Kiffin will even get a head coaching job anytime soon. As hard as he tried, Al failed to be the first owner to fire a coach this season. The Rams kicked out Scott Linehan even earlier and Jim Haslett takes over in Saint Louis.
Now on to the playoffs. We get to hear the goofy psycho Ozzie Guillen for a few more days. Brewers and Philly kick it off tomorrow. CC can't pitch because he pitched Sunday, but it should still be a good game. Dodgers and Cubs will also be at it tomorrow and the night-cap will feature the RedSox and Angels. Jon Lester - V - John Lackey should be a good one. The Dodgers look like the RedSox-West as Derek Lowe is starting and of course Manny will be the center-piece. Derek Lowe can actually win this game. Well if he is not busy cheating on his wife with some news reporter!
The biggest and weirdest news of the day involved Al Davis and the Oakland Raiders. Al came out today and finally fired Lane Kiffin, He refused to pay the remainder of his salary and made it look like he was firing a scum-bag liar. These 2 are definitely not parting as friends and I have no idea who is lying. Al is saying he spoke with Lane all the time, but Lane keeps claiming he never spoke to Al. He also read some letter that he sent to Lane. High drama in the Bay Area, but who cares since the Raiders have become the laughing stock of the NFL for a few years now. This episode seems like Mike Shanahan all over again - Al firing a young, offensive minded, first time head coach and refusing to pay him. Lane Kiffin sure hopes he ends up just like Shanahan with the rest of his career. But I really doubt if Lane Kiffin will even get a head coaching job anytime soon. As hard as he tried, Al failed to be the first owner to fire a coach this season. The Rams kicked out Scott Linehan even earlier and Jim Haslett takes over in Saint Louis.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Fun has started
It feels like the college season just started yesterday, but it's already 5 weeks old. This season has been kind of quiet on the upset front until now and then this weekend happened. I felt like I was a year younger and it was 2007 all over again. One top 10 team after another biting the dust and some of them looking totally outclassed against so-called lesser opponents. The biggest shocker was what happened in Corvallis on Thursday. Just when Pete Carroll was starting to prepare for his near-guaranteed Championship game in January, the Oregon State Beavers took them to school. They shut them out 21-0 in the first half and won the game 27-21. Freshman Jacquizz Rodgers ran all over the Trojans and made them look silly. He pretty much sealed the USC's season at least for now.
This was followed by an eventful Saturday topped by the stupid blackout in Athens, Georgia. The Georgia Bulldogs went for the black unis and made sure all 90000 fans were clad in black. This was supposed to scare Alabama or something, but the Tide turned the so-called blackout into lights-out for Georgia. They dropped a 31-0 beat-down on the 3Rd seed Georgia in the first half and won the game 41-30. I am sure Nick Saban is still denying that he is coaching at Alabama and might even be pretending like he is still coaching the Dolphins, but he sure is doing a good job at Alabama. He has them ranked all the way up at the 2 spot. I am sure the Bama faithful is thrilled at their coach. SEC is not the conference for safe predictions, but I think their game at LSU on Nov-18 might be the de-facto national Championship. Lets see how it plays out.
Number 4 Florida and number 9 Wisconsin lost to Mississippi and Michigan respectively. Florida probably thought they were now the favorites after the USC loss. So close yet so far. But in this day and age of parity in college football, one loss teams can still go all the way. Last year, it felt like a circular ranking scheme where the top teams lost, dropped down and then again the new top teams lost and the team that dropped down earlier percolated up again to the top. This season could very well be similar. So teams like Florida, Georgia, USC and may be even the Suckeyes could work their way up again if upsets galore. But as of now, Oklahama, Alabama, LSU, Missouri and Texas make up the top 5. Thats some strong showing for Big-12 and how about that Texas-OU game? Can't wait for it. Bring it on!
This was followed by an eventful Saturday topped by the stupid blackout in Athens, Georgia. The Georgia Bulldogs went for the black unis and made sure all 90000 fans were clad in black. This was supposed to scare Alabama or something, but the Tide turned the so-called blackout into lights-out for Georgia. They dropped a 31-0 beat-down on the 3Rd seed Georgia in the first half and won the game 41-30. I am sure Nick Saban is still denying that he is coaching at Alabama and might even be pretending like he is still coaching the Dolphins, but he sure is doing a good job at Alabama. He has them ranked all the way up at the 2 spot. I am sure the Bama faithful is thrilled at their coach. SEC is not the conference for safe predictions, but I think their game at LSU on Nov-18 might be the de-facto national Championship. Lets see how it plays out.
Number 4 Florida and number 9 Wisconsin lost to Mississippi and Michigan respectively. Florida probably thought they were now the favorites after the USC loss. So close yet so far. But in this day and age of parity in college football, one loss teams can still go all the way. Last year, it felt like a circular ranking scheme where the top teams lost, dropped down and then again the new top teams lost and the team that dropped down earlier percolated up again to the top. This season could very well be similar. So teams like Florida, Georgia, USC and may be even the Suckeyes could work their way up again if upsets galore. But as of now, Oklahama, Alabama, LSU, Missouri and Texas make up the top 5. Thats some strong showing for Big-12 and how about that Texas-OU game? Can't wait for it. Bring it on!
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Great Rental
The real-estate market has been down for a while. House prices have been collapsing and renting sounds more and more like a good idea these days. One rental that was a brilliant idea was the Brewers buying C.C. Sabathia at the trade deadline. The Brewers probably won't retain CC or Ben Sheets next season, but they achieved what they wanted to with that trade - make the playoffs after 26 years. Amazing that they made the playoffs even after firing their coach Ned Yost recently. You see these trade deadline rentals all the time, almost every year. Teams in contention go get somebody for the short-term from the "clearance sale" section of other teams. Oakland A's Billy Beane used to be the expert at this.
It's never obvious how good or bad these rentals work out. Even if the guy puts up good numbers, you can never conclusively say this is why the team made the playoffs and they would have missed it without him. Even with a super successful rental like Manny in LA this year, you can't really put a number on his impact. But there is no way the Brewers make the playoffs without CC - no way in hell ! Forget all the intangibles and the emotional lift he gave the team with his domination every 5-Th day, the raw numbers are just too good. He is 11-2 with a 1.7 ERA and 7 complete games in half a season. Brewers won 14 of his 17 starts - thats .823 baseball. Tell me who else could have done it for them? Even if the guy who CC replaced had been good and pitched .600 or .700 baseball (highly unlikely), the Brewers would have still missed the playoffs considering they beat the NY Mets by just 1 game for the Wild Card. I am not even talking about the fact that CC took the ball today in a must-win game on 3 days rest and pitched a complete game for a playoff-clinching win. CC has been an absolute stud this year and the best rental ever!
I am happy for the Brewers. This took them 26 years and thats way too long for a good fan base. As for the team they eliminated, the Mets shockingly choked away their division lead for the second consecutive season. The NY tabloids are killing them and they dont even care Brett Favre threw 6 TDs for the Jets today. The Mets went 4-6 in the last ten to lose the division to the Phillies. Now Phillies meet the Brewers. Should be a good series except for Network TV. Thats 2 small markets fighting it out. At least the other 2 NLDS features huge markets - LA Dodgers V Chicago Cubs. That should be fun with Manny and his .396 average being the major attraction. In the AL, the White-Sox have a make-up game tomorrow against the Detroit Tigers which will tell us if they need a one game playoff against the Twins for the right to play the DevilRays in the real playoffs. A little convoluted, but should be good drama.
It's never obvious how good or bad these rentals work out. Even if the guy puts up good numbers, you can never conclusively say this is why the team made the playoffs and they would have missed it without him. Even with a super successful rental like Manny in LA this year, you can't really put a number on his impact. But there is no way the Brewers make the playoffs without CC - no way in hell ! Forget all the intangibles and the emotional lift he gave the team with his domination every 5-Th day, the raw numbers are just too good. He is 11-2 with a 1.7 ERA and 7 complete games in half a season. Brewers won 14 of his 17 starts - thats .823 baseball. Tell me who else could have done it for them? Even if the guy who CC replaced had been good and pitched .600 or .700 baseball (highly unlikely), the Brewers would have still missed the playoffs considering they beat the NY Mets by just 1 game for the Wild Card. I am not even talking about the fact that CC took the ball today in a must-win game on 3 days rest and pitched a complete game for a playoff-clinching win. CC has been an absolute stud this year and the best rental ever!
I am happy for the Brewers. This took them 26 years and thats way too long for a good fan base. As for the team they eliminated, the Mets shockingly choked away their division lead for the second consecutive season. The NY tabloids are killing them and they dont even care Brett Favre threw 6 TDs for the Jets today. The Mets went 4-6 in the last ten to lose the division to the Phillies. Now Phillies meet the Brewers. Should be a good series except for Network TV. Thats 2 small markets fighting it out. At least the other 2 NLDS features huge markets - LA Dodgers V Chicago Cubs. That should be fun with Manny and his .396 average being the major attraction. In the AL, the White-Sox have a make-up game tomorrow against the Detroit Tigers which will tell us if they need a one game playoff against the Twins for the right to play the DevilRays in the real playoffs. A little convoluted, but should be good drama.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Boys are for Real
Week 3 in the NFL established a few things. The Cowboys are clearly the team to beat. Romo is good, but then again he is always good in the Summer and Fall. When Winter starts and the playoffs roll around, thats when he disappears to Mexico as his game disappears into thin air. But all kidding aside, he is one of the top QBs in the league and he and his offense put on a show last weekend against the Eagles. Their defense looked shaky against McNabb and the gang and we didn't know if that game featured 2 great offenses or 2 bad defenses or both.
It turns both Philly and the Cowboys are not that bad defensively. The Cowboys slowed down A-Rod and the Packers at Lambeau. The Packers offense has been on fire until this game and this game was a little bit of a "come back to earth" situation for A-Rod. By the way, it's funny how the Jets and Favre came down to Earth too this weekend as the Chargers took care of the Jets pretty easily. Anyways, the Cowboys defense did what it had to and stifled the Pack. NFC is the Cowboys' conference to lose right now. NFC East looks unstoppable. The Giants are also on a roll and even the Skins are not bad. What the Eagles D did to Pittsturgh was even more impressive than the Dallas D. They abused Ben Roethlisberger and made Pittsburgh look ordinary. Big Ben spent half the game lying on his back.
The other shocker of the weekend was Miami and Ronnie Brown running all over the Patriots. The Matt Cassel experiment is not going well for the Pats. They miss Tom Brady and they lost 38-13 to a horrible Miami team. Cassel has done nothing for them yet and we are a week or 2 away from Randy Moss going "operation shutdown" on the entire New England area. It might very well be an end of an era in the NFL as the Patriots defense has not looked this ordinary in years. Also the Colts are 1-2 and are looking mediocre right now. They can't stop the run just like a few years back and with Peyton returning from a surgery, the offense looks just a little off. It's amazing how the Colts D tanks every time Bob Sanders doesn't play. These 2 teams defined this era in the NFL and they both may not go far this season. However, I am not ready to bury Manning and the Colts yet. He'll at least get the offense fixed soon.
The new kids on the block are the Tennessee Titans and the Buffalo Bills. Not sure how legit they both are, but they are both 3-0. The Bills almost lost to the Raiders at home, but the Raiders couldn't close the deal. Trent Edwards woke up in time to win this game. I was really impressed with this young QB. The Titans are going to be fine as long as Kerry Collins starts. No guarantees if and when Vince Young comes back. The stories of his emotional problems and mental instability are really bizarre. It goes to show how everybody has their daemons and the rich and the famous are not as happy as we think they are or they should be. Life is challenging regardless of what place you are at. Hope he gets his head fixed and gets back on the field, but the truth is, he is not a good QB yet.
The other bizarre story is this thing going on with Lane Kiffin and Al Davis. Al wants to get rid of him, but is still waiting for him to resign so that he doesn't have to pay him the reminder of his contract. But Lane is saying he will never quit. There is a report everyday about how Kiffin will be fired tomorrow, but tomorrow never comes. This is another one of those "only in Raiderland" type stories. Al Davis looks real old these days, but he looks determined to kill the Raider organization before he passes away himself. In other games, Minnesota won it's first game as Frerotte started and played half-way decent. In Denver, Cutler and the Broncos continued their winning ways though the Saints and Drew Brees almost out-scored them in an offensive contest of epic proportions. Tampa Bay won a game behind Brian Griese's 67 passes and 407 yards.
Mike Martz and the Niners took care of Detroit rather easily as JTO is fast becoming the new rage in SFO. Sweet revenge for both JTO and Martz. One of the younger Fords promptly came out and said he would fire Matt Millen if he had the authority - a direct shot at his dad (and Millen of course). But he is about 6 years too late. The only thing more shocking than W being allowed to run this country for 8 years is Matt Millen running the Lions for about the same period. Definitely makes you wonder if there is some truth to Charles Barkeley's theory for such situations - "this guy should have a picture of his boss's wife having sex with a monkey!".
It turns both Philly and the Cowboys are not that bad defensively. The Cowboys slowed down A-Rod and the Packers at Lambeau. The Packers offense has been on fire until this game and this game was a little bit of a "come back to earth" situation for A-Rod. By the way, it's funny how the Jets and Favre came down to Earth too this weekend as the Chargers took care of the Jets pretty easily. Anyways, the Cowboys defense did what it had to and stifled the Pack. NFC is the Cowboys' conference to lose right now. NFC East looks unstoppable. The Giants are also on a roll and even the Skins are not bad. What the Eagles D did to Pittsturgh was even more impressive than the Dallas D. They abused Ben Roethlisberger and made Pittsburgh look ordinary. Big Ben spent half the game lying on his back.
The other shocker of the weekend was Miami and Ronnie Brown running all over the Patriots. The Matt Cassel experiment is not going well for the Pats. They miss Tom Brady and they lost 38-13 to a horrible Miami team. Cassel has done nothing for them yet and we are a week or 2 away from Randy Moss going "operation shutdown" on the entire New England area. It might very well be an end of an era in the NFL as the Patriots defense has not looked this ordinary in years. Also the Colts are 1-2 and are looking mediocre right now. They can't stop the run just like a few years back and with Peyton returning from a surgery, the offense looks just a little off. It's amazing how the Colts D tanks every time Bob Sanders doesn't play. These 2 teams defined this era in the NFL and they both may not go far this season. However, I am not ready to bury Manning and the Colts yet. He'll at least get the offense fixed soon.
The new kids on the block are the Tennessee Titans and the Buffalo Bills. Not sure how legit they both are, but they are both 3-0. The Bills almost lost to the Raiders at home, but the Raiders couldn't close the deal. Trent Edwards woke up in time to win this game. I was really impressed with this young QB. The Titans are going to be fine as long as Kerry Collins starts. No guarantees if and when Vince Young comes back. The stories of his emotional problems and mental instability are really bizarre. It goes to show how everybody has their daemons and the rich and the famous are not as happy as we think they are or they should be. Life is challenging regardless of what place you are at. Hope he gets his head fixed and gets back on the field, but the truth is, he is not a good QB yet.
The other bizarre story is this thing going on with Lane Kiffin and Al Davis. Al wants to get rid of him, but is still waiting for him to resign so that he doesn't have to pay him the reminder of his contract. But Lane is saying he will never quit. There is a report everyday about how Kiffin will be fired tomorrow, but tomorrow never comes. This is another one of those "only in Raiderland" type stories. Al Davis looks real old these days, but he looks determined to kill the Raider organization before he passes away himself. In other games, Minnesota won it's first game as Frerotte started and played half-way decent. In Denver, Cutler and the Broncos continued their winning ways though the Saints and Drew Brees almost out-scored them in an offensive contest of epic proportions. Tampa Bay won a game behind Brian Griese's 67 passes and 407 yards.
Mike Martz and the Niners took care of Detroit rather easily as JTO is fast becoming the new rage in SFO. Sweet revenge for both JTO and Martz. One of the younger Fords promptly came out and said he would fire Matt Millen if he had the authority - a direct shot at his dad (and Millen of course). But he is about 6 years too late. The only thing more shocking than W being allowed to run this country for 8 years is Matt Millen running the Lions for about the same period. Definitely makes you wonder if there is some truth to Charles Barkeley's theory for such situations - "this guy should have a picture of his boss's wife having sex with a monkey!".
Friday, September 19, 2008
10 is better than 9
Yankees are 9 games behind the Tampa Bay Devilrays. This sentence is such music to my ears I wouldn't mind saying or typing it a few more times. And yes I'll stop calling them the Devilrays only when they make the playoffs, which interestingly enough, is going to happen this year in all probability. The only thing better than the Yanks trailing the AL East leader by 9 might be them trailing by 10. That could happen as early as tomorrow. It's an interesting end to their existence in the Yankee stadium. The last game in the legendary stadium is this Sunday and the Yankees are going to leave their old digs without a playoff game.
The other good thing about the Yankees struggles is that it'll shut ESPN up a little bit. If the Yanks were also good this year, ESPN might run a tribute to the stadium 24X7. Now it'll still be on, but just a little subdued. Personally, I would have liked to watch a game at the old stadium. I guess I missed it. Actually, I was kinda surprised the Yankees even decided to move out. This will never happen to Fenway or Wrigley. But then again the Yankee stadium is quite historic and legendary, but as a stadium, it's not quite the icon that Wrigley or Fenway is. I have not been to any of those stadiums, but I have hung out for a while outside Wrigley and I fell in love immediately.
The lovable losers of Wrigley won another big game today. They came from behind in the 9-Th, tied and then beat the Brewers for another bad loss for the Brew-crew. "Yost is toast" as Yahoo sports put it, but they still have issues. By the way, I love that heading for some reason, though it was very predictable and quite unimaginative. If the Brewers miss the playoffs again, its going to be very disappointing for the Wisconsinites. Luckily for them Aaron Rodgers in his first 2 starts has looked like Dan Marino and Joe Montana rolled into one. The Brewers still have a shot and I hope they cash it in. If not, they could be in trouble soon as CC and Ben Sheets are looking to break the bank in free agency this winter. Of course most of our banks might be bankrupt by then or we the tax payers might be owning them. but thats neither here nor there.
Anyways, back to sports, my DBacks are hovering around .500 threatening no one. They did win against Tim Lincecum today as the Giants wasted another great start from this dude. I have not seen him pitch a bad game all season. He is a true ace. The Giants are doing to him what the Minnesota Vikings are doing with Adrian Peterson. Which brings me to the NFL. I hate saying "I told you so", but I did tell you so. The Vikings have finally benched Jackson and are starting Frerotte just like I asked them to a few days back. It's a no-brainer after Jackson's performance the first 2 weeks. It should be interesting to see this team now if Adrian in healthy. He is missing some practice time this week. Hopefully it's nothing major. The Chiefs are starting somebody called Thigpen at QB. May be they should just request USC's Mark Sanchez to play for them on Sunday after his college games on Saturdays.
The other good thing about the Yankees struggles is that it'll shut ESPN up a little bit. If the Yanks were also good this year, ESPN might run a tribute to the stadium 24X7. Now it'll still be on, but just a little subdued. Personally, I would have liked to watch a game at the old stadium. I guess I missed it. Actually, I was kinda surprised the Yankees even decided to move out. This will never happen to Fenway or Wrigley. But then again the Yankee stadium is quite historic and legendary, but as a stadium, it's not quite the icon that Wrigley or Fenway is. I have not been to any of those stadiums, but I have hung out for a while outside Wrigley and I fell in love immediately.
The lovable losers of Wrigley won another big game today. They came from behind in the 9-Th, tied and then beat the Brewers for another bad loss for the Brew-crew. "Yost is toast" as Yahoo sports put it, but they still have issues. By the way, I love that heading for some reason, though it was very predictable and quite unimaginative. If the Brewers miss the playoffs again, its going to be very disappointing for the Wisconsinites. Luckily for them Aaron Rodgers in his first 2 starts has looked like Dan Marino and Joe Montana rolled into one. The Brewers still have a shot and I hope they cash it in. If not, they could be in trouble soon as CC and Ben Sheets are looking to break the bank in free agency this winter. Of course most of our banks might be bankrupt by then or we the tax payers might be owning them. but thats neither here nor there.
Anyways, back to sports, my DBacks are hovering around .500 threatening no one. They did win against Tim Lincecum today as the Giants wasted another great start from this dude. I have not seen him pitch a bad game all season. He is a true ace. The Giants are doing to him what the Minnesota Vikings are doing with Adrian Peterson. Which brings me to the NFL. I hate saying "I told you so", but I did tell you so. The Vikings have finally benched Jackson and are starting Frerotte just like I asked them to a few days back. It's a no-brainer after Jackson's performance the first 2 weeks. It should be interesting to see this team now if Adrian in healthy. He is missing some practice time this week. Hopefully it's nothing major. The Chiefs are starting somebody called Thigpen at QB. May be they should just request USC's Mark Sanchez to play for them on Sunday after his college games on Saturdays.
Monday, September 15, 2008
McNabb blows it
Another week of football is in the books. College Saturday was a disaster as ASU lost to UNLV long before the so-called "big game" next week against Georgia. They may have been looking ahead, or they may just be bad. It's probably the later more than the former. It was a pretty bad week for the Pac-10 as Cal lost at Maryland and UCLA got blanked 59-0 by BYU. The only good news of the week was the Trojans crushing the overrated Ohio State Suckeyes 35-3. That'll shut them up for a week or 2. The surprising result of the week was Notre Dame beating Michigan 35-17. I mean they are both bad, but I am surprised every time the Domers win these days. Auburn beat Mississippi State 3-2. What? Is this football or baseball from the 1960's?
In the NFL, another interesting week. For the second straight week, Minnesota showed us how to waste the prime of a great running back. They lost 18-15 to the Colts since they couldn't score TDs. Adrian Peterson ran for 160 yards and all the Vikings could do with it was score field goals. Of course if you stay close to Peyton, he is going to pass you by sooner or later and thats exactly what he did. The Vikings D was so good, but you can't keep Peyton down for that long. You got to score TDs and put some distance and pressure on him. I think it's time for Gus Frerotte to step in. It's not acceptable that the Vikings are 0-2, the same record as Kansas City with 10 times the talent except for one QB.
How bad is Kansas City if they are losing 23-8 to the Oakland Raiders? McFadden rushed up and down the field for 164 yards and Justin Fargas and Michael Bush combined for 133 more. For the Chiefs, Larry Johnson looked listless. If he loses his job today, he might not even get a job as Michael Bush's backup. I would set 8 as the over-under for the number of games before Herm Edwards gets fired. His team is pathetic. Another coach in trouble could be Marvin Lewis as the Cincinnati Bengals continued their slide from last season with a 24-7 loss to Tennessee. How can the Bengals score just 7 points with Ocho Cinco, TJ Housh and Carson Palmer?
As for the good teams. Aaron Rodgers is a stud! He had a dream first half in his game against Detroit. He threw for 328 yards and 3 TDs in the game. The Giants won again, but then again it was against the Rams, another rotten team. New England won against Favre and the Jets as they scored just 19 points and won with an all-around game. Thats the new Patriots for you. Matt Cassel is not going to throw for 50 TDs this season and Moss may not run wild, but he'll win enough games as their starting QB. By the way, Sammy Morris had stats of 0 yds rushing and 1 rushing TD. Makes me very happy as the fantasy owner of Lawrence Maroney! Kurt Warner had 361 yards and 3 TDs as both Fitzgerald and Boldin went nuts for the Cards.
The games of the week were clearly the San Diego-Denver contest and the Monday nighter between Philly and Dallas. Philly blew a great chance on the road as they did everything right on offense for a while, but self-destructed late in the game. Donovan McNabb is great, but I got to say, he is still missing something. He doesn't seem to come through at the end. He muffed 2 hand-offs to Westbrook late in the game and the second one came at a very bad time. He seemed to have confused himself and faked a handoff to Westbrook only to actually try and handoff to him after a double-clutch. Of course they didn't connect and the fumble was lost. McNabb looked as good as Romo and the boys, but he just could not finish.
Romo is clearly one of the best QBs in the league. It's amazing how suddenly many of these young QBs are turning out to be very good. Aaron Rodgers, Jay Cutler and Philip Rivers being the other good ones. The surprise to me is Philip Rivers. He was shaky even late last season and he seems to have grown leaps and bounds since the playoffs last year under Norv Turner. Both him and Cutler were near perfect in that Denver-San Diego game. Shanahan pulled a big one when he went for 2 at the end. You almost never see this in football. May be in College once a year, but never in the NFL. Thats shows you his confidence in Cutler and the offense.
But the story of the game were the 2 bad calls that went against the Chargers. The non-call on the fumble at the end before the Denver TD, which even Cutler accepts was a fumble, was a horrible call. It was so obvious that I walked away from the TV when that happened and completely missed the ending because I thought the Chargers have sealed the win with that fumble. I was shocked later when I learnt that Denver won that game. Denver also got the ball on a supposed San Diego fumble in the first quarter which was not a fumble. Turner challenged it in time, but they couldn't overturn it because the replay machine did not work. What the hell is going on with the NFL? I don't know why bad luck always seems to chase Norv Turner. But at least he has a good team and a good QB. They should be fine eventually though LT looks a little hurt.
In the NFL, another interesting week. For the second straight week, Minnesota showed us how to waste the prime of a great running back. They lost 18-15 to the Colts since they couldn't score TDs. Adrian Peterson ran for 160 yards and all the Vikings could do with it was score field goals. Of course if you stay close to Peyton, he is going to pass you by sooner or later and thats exactly what he did. The Vikings D was so good, but you can't keep Peyton down for that long. You got to score TDs and put some distance and pressure on him. I think it's time for Gus Frerotte to step in. It's not acceptable that the Vikings are 0-2, the same record as Kansas City with 10 times the talent except for one QB.
How bad is Kansas City if they are losing 23-8 to the Oakland Raiders? McFadden rushed up and down the field for 164 yards and Justin Fargas and Michael Bush combined for 133 more. For the Chiefs, Larry Johnson looked listless. If he loses his job today, he might not even get a job as Michael Bush's backup. I would set 8 as the over-under for the number of games before Herm Edwards gets fired. His team is pathetic. Another coach in trouble could be Marvin Lewis as the Cincinnati Bengals continued their slide from last season with a 24-7 loss to Tennessee. How can the Bengals score just 7 points with Ocho Cinco, TJ Housh and Carson Palmer?
As for the good teams. Aaron Rodgers is a stud! He had a dream first half in his game against Detroit. He threw for 328 yards and 3 TDs in the game. The Giants won again, but then again it was against the Rams, another rotten team. New England won against Favre and the Jets as they scored just 19 points and won with an all-around game. Thats the new Patriots for you. Matt Cassel is not going to throw for 50 TDs this season and Moss may not run wild, but he'll win enough games as their starting QB. By the way, Sammy Morris had stats of 0 yds rushing and 1 rushing TD. Makes me very happy as the fantasy owner of Lawrence Maroney! Kurt Warner had 361 yards and 3 TDs as both Fitzgerald and Boldin went nuts for the Cards.
The games of the week were clearly the San Diego-Denver contest and the Monday nighter between Philly and Dallas. Philly blew a great chance on the road as they did everything right on offense for a while, but self-destructed late in the game. Donovan McNabb is great, but I got to say, he is still missing something. He doesn't seem to come through at the end. He muffed 2 hand-offs to Westbrook late in the game and the second one came at a very bad time. He seemed to have confused himself and faked a handoff to Westbrook only to actually try and handoff to him after a double-clutch. Of course they didn't connect and the fumble was lost. McNabb looked as good as Romo and the boys, but he just could not finish.
Romo is clearly one of the best QBs in the league. It's amazing how suddenly many of these young QBs are turning out to be very good. Aaron Rodgers, Jay Cutler and Philip Rivers being the other good ones. The surprise to me is Philip Rivers. He was shaky even late last season and he seems to have grown leaps and bounds since the playoffs last year under Norv Turner. Both him and Cutler were near perfect in that Denver-San Diego game. Shanahan pulled a big one when he went for 2 at the end. You almost never see this in football. May be in College once a year, but never in the NFL. Thats shows you his confidence in Cutler and the offense.
But the story of the game were the 2 bad calls that went against the Chargers. The non-call on the fumble at the end before the Denver TD, which even Cutler accepts was a fumble, was a horrible call. It was so obvious that I walked away from the TV when that happened and completely missed the ending because I thought the Chargers have sealed the win with that fumble. I was shocked later when I learnt that Denver won that game. Denver also got the ball on a supposed San Diego fumble in the first quarter which was not a fumble. Turner challenged it in time, but they couldn't overturn it because the replay machine did not work. What the hell is going on with the NFL? I don't know why bad luck always seems to chase Norv Turner. But at least he has a good team and a good QB. They should be fine eventually though LT looks a little hurt.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
A-Rod looks good
NFL's week-1 came to an end with the Monday night double-header. Aaron Rodgers looked terrific. Not a surprise to me at all since I have had great hopes for this guy since college. He was accurate and poised. Played mistake free and his work with his legs were an added bonus. It must have felt real good for him when he did the Lambeau leap after a rushing TD. But I was more impressed with his throw low and tight for the passing TD. He went through his reads and threw it to his 3-Rd or 4-Th option at a spot where only the receiver could lay his hands on the ball. Good start, but this is just one game.
On the other side, I can't believe the Vikings went into this season with all the talent in the World, but Tarvaris Jackson at QB. That guy sucks and AD can carry the Vikings to great places if only they get even decent play at QB. These days, teams are just too obsessed with youth and potential and they don't realize that talent, even if old, can take some teams places. This is a side-effect of sky rocketing salaries and the desire of teams to find the next big thing often ignoring the current "good thing" that can help you win now.
Coming back to A-Rod, I always thought he was the better QB in that 2005 draft. The Niners made Alex Smith the number 1 pick and that flawed marriage seems to be finally over. He lost his starting job this season and now he is out for the season with his shoulder problem. What's remaining now is for the Niners to cut him next summer to save some cap and for Alex to end up in the bench somewhere else. He deserves one more shot but it's unlikely he'll get it in San Francisco. In fact, a change of scenery is always good and he is better off somewhere else. Good luck to him. He has some physical tools and lets see what he does with it.
Speaking of injured QBs, Tom Brady is out with both a torn ACL and MCL. Can he come back and do what he is used to doing? I would guess so because he is not much of a runner. He can always hang in there in the pocket and make throws like Dan Marino or something. But it's still going to be tough because the last big-name QB to have this same injury was Daunte Culpepper and we all know what happened to him. He has disappeared into thin air and he is actually retired as of last week. Lets just hope his career continues at a high-level.
On Monday night, we also had the misfortune of watching the Oakland Raiders. They looked horrible. JaMarcus Russell looked real bad too. He can throw long, but has no touch or accuracy and his decision making is suspect. But he is very young and raw and I don't want to beat him up too much yet. But the product that the Raiders put on the field is horrible. Russell actually ended with decent stats, but they couldn't score on offense or stop Denver from scoring on defense. I am not sure how good Jay Cutler and the Broncos are going to be this season, but the Raiders sure made them look like the best team in the league.
On the other side, I can't believe the Vikings went into this season with all the talent in the World, but Tarvaris Jackson at QB. That guy sucks and AD can carry the Vikings to great places if only they get even decent play at QB. These days, teams are just too obsessed with youth and potential and they don't realize that talent, even if old, can take some teams places. This is a side-effect of sky rocketing salaries and the desire of teams to find the next big thing often ignoring the current "good thing" that can help you win now.
Coming back to A-Rod, I always thought he was the better QB in that 2005 draft. The Niners made Alex Smith the number 1 pick and that flawed marriage seems to be finally over. He lost his starting job this season and now he is out for the season with his shoulder problem. What's remaining now is for the Niners to cut him next summer to save some cap and for Alex to end up in the bench somewhere else. He deserves one more shot but it's unlikely he'll get it in San Francisco. In fact, a change of scenery is always good and he is better off somewhere else. Good luck to him. He has some physical tools and lets see what he does with it.
Speaking of injured QBs, Tom Brady is out with both a torn ACL and MCL. Can he come back and do what he is used to doing? I would guess so because he is not much of a runner. He can always hang in there in the pocket and make throws like Dan Marino or something. But it's still going to be tough because the last big-name QB to have this same injury was Daunte Culpepper and we all know what happened to him. He has disappeared into thin air and he is actually retired as of last week. Lets just hope his career continues at a high-level.
On Monday night, we also had the misfortune of watching the Oakland Raiders. They looked horrible. JaMarcus Russell looked real bad too. He can throw long, but has no touch or accuracy and his decision making is suspect. But he is very young and raw and I don't want to beat him up too much yet. But the product that the Raiders put on the field is horrible. Russell actually ended with decent stats, but they couldn't score on offense or stop Denver from scoring on defense. I am not sure how good Jay Cutler and the Broncos are going to be this season, but the Raiders sure made them look like the best team in the league.
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